Iceland & Hawaii: Trip Reports and Travel Hacks
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Have you ever wondered how to make your travel experiences truly unforgettable no matter where you go? In today's episode, my wife and I are unpacking too wildly different but amazing trips. We recently took one to our new favorite country, iceland, and another to the big island of hawaii. While we will do a full l trip report on both, we also want to share all the tactics we use for planning and booking, some of the lessons we learned and all the insider tips we picked up along the way so you can level up your future vacations. I'm Chris chen, and if you enjoy this episode, please share with a friend or leave a comment or review, and if you want to keep upgrading your life, money and travel, click follow or subscribe.

Now let's get into IT right after this, the latest report from the ftc showed that in twenty twenty three, ten billion dollars was lost to consumer fraud and two point seven billion of that was lost to impostor, which had over eight hundred and fifty thousand reports last year. So what do you do about IT? Well, first off, just learning more about the tactics these scammers use can help you know what to look out for.

But a big way I try to keep our family protected is to make sure all our personal info is removed from as many data broken websites as possible. So were less of an enticing target. You'd be shocked at how many sites out there are sharing your address phone over birthday email.

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So if you want to get your personal information removed from the web, go to all the hacks stock com slash, delete me and get twenty percent off a plan for you or your entire family. Again, that's all the hacks dot com slashed. Delete me, right? We're back on the couch talking about trips ami's on the show.

It's not quite as late. There's no wine this time, just water. But I did think that would be really fun to dive into these two trips we took the last month has been crazy.

We did iced london hawaii together. The goal is to really fit in a lot of learnings and takeaway, both for those destinations and just travel related things we learned along the way. But obviously, you're welcome to use the time stamps to skip ahead if you want to focus on why or skip over something. So let's start with iceland. Before I even talk about how came to be, what do you feel about iceland now that you've .

been island was one of the most incredible countries i've ever seen or experienced in my entire life. Definitely top, top three countries on my list.

wow. Yeah, I totally agree. So just A T of the icon trip. I want to share one piece of feedback from someone that went on the trip.

They said, what happens when you team up a professional travel hacker with a renown, no mad journalist and author who knows the destination like his own home? Magic, absolute magic. We had the best time expLoring iceland with the all the acx community, and the relationships we forge will last a lifetime.

I think that really sums up how awesome the trip was of the inspiration for IT because one of the things we wanted to do was create a trip that you couldn't do on your own. And that's a theme that we will come back to. For those who aren't familiar, here's how this thing unfolded because this is not a Normal trip that we've taken back about little more than a year and a half ago.

Episode one fifteen, I have brand impressor, who is a travel journalist, and probably, I thinks, been to iceland over a couple dozen times on the podcast to do an episode planning to iceland. And the reason we did that is because you and I had talked about wanting to go to iceland, and I thought, let's try some new formats on the podcast. Let's do effectively a travel guide to iceland.

And in the middle that episode, I was so excited about a trip to iceland that we actually, at the end said, hey, if you listening, are excited about going to island, also go to this website and we might plan a trip. Now at the time, we had no idea we're going to plan a trip. I was probably committed after that episode to go to iceland, but we had such a huge number of people that said, yes, we want to go on a trip together that we decided to give you a world.

And IT seemed a little crazy at the time. I certainly told friends, oh, we're going on a trip to iceland to fifteen people that listen the podcast that we've never met and like, we're going to spend a week together. But people thought.

you're crazy.

Yes, people thought I go there. I do have protection, but I feel like we have such an awesome community of people that listen this podcast that subscribed the newsletter that I don't know, I didn't seem crazy to me. We hadn't talked, but now we emailed with them a little bit beforehand.

And I will second everything you said about ice in the country. But I also think the experience of hanging out with new people in an amazing environment, I genuinely feel like we made friends that we will have for many, many years to come. And I hope we travel with everyone on that trip again.

I agree.

So I thought what would be really interesting today was to just share a little bit of our takeaway from the trip. So if anyone is thinking about going to island, hear some follow ups, share some of the tricks we learned on the travel and from there, and some quick reviews for anyone who's doing this on their own. So let's start with how we actually started.

The trip was at a hot springs, which I feel like is both how we started and ended this trip. And I love a good cold plunge. I love a good sana.

I love a good hot tub. And the culture of hospitals in iceland was amazing, and IT was such a good way to start the trip. They have everything from healthy quote and quote, L.

G, filled natural hot springs all the way up to places like the blue lagoon and hum vic, which we started at, which we're like, really nice man occurred. Beautiful hot springs with all the facilities. I don't know that part of culture in iceland and a lot of scandal among countries is something that I just love.

Yeah, I agree. We started in homepage. And the thing I really enjoyed about that specific t springs was that I was very well manicured, but I still felt very natural. And it's unique to start a trip getting semi nude with these individuals that you don't really know so well and essentially after a two hours so you know them quite well. But it's a really good way to relax, especially after working, getting off the plane and getting into your trip.

Yeah, it's interesting because if you only did one, I would say, do you want to end your trip at a hot spring and then be so relaxed and get on the plane? Do you want to start IT there? But yeah, he was funny because the first thing we did with a bunch of people we don't know is walking into a ockham and changed to our swimsuits together was kind of like really quick bonding with everyone. So I will see the hot springs are not clothing optional, but the locker .

rooms definitely are. The one other thing I will say is a lot of the hot springs are on these towards. The experience is amazing. And that you can go from a really, really hot springs straight into a diocles al planet in the feard and the islands locals think nothing of IT. They walk in as if it's a bath for the rest of I thought I was really cold, but it's really nice to have those natural elements that are really making your body work and it's beautiful.

You're not, you know, in the basement of a gym. You're sitting at the base of a field with mountains in the distance. So great way to start a trip. We spent the first part of the trip in the west upon the sniffles inss peninsula. For anyone who speaks islamic, I will probably be sure all the words I say, this is one of your favor.

Places i've loved, IT. IT had a really wide variety of landscapes. I think that people in and of themselves were just really welcoming, very friendly, even if the hotels we stay at IT felt like we were almost staying in this massive islandia mansion of sorts, where everyone kind of new each other, everyone has been IT just shot, very welcoming.

And I remember the first property we stay died. There was the sea behind us, a law of field in front bus, this quinton central isolani White church to the side of us. And then in the distance you can see mountains of lino and a. Glaser all from the same window. And that was really incredible.

Yeah, you see all that during the day. And then at night you're out of the metal of nowhere, and we got really lucky. The first and second nights we were there, walked outside northern lights in the sky.

You actually were so excited. I woke you up and I said, of the north n lights are out. Amy runs outside in a bathrobe because you didn't want to miss IT. And this is not a warm night in iceland. But I feel like something magical happened for you, staring at the northern lights.

IT was something I cannot even put into words. IT was something that i've wanted to see forever. And actually seeing is so viBrant, it's truly a one of a kind, unique experience. Being able to see IT with other individuals for the first time is a pretty cool collective experience.

One thing that I took away, so I agree, IT was amazing. I didn't realize how different what you see with your eyes and what you see with the camera is you would be looking at something. And to be amazing, when you take a picture of IT and IT would look ten times cool. And so I just want to levels that how unique that is.

And the other cool thing is, when you actually trying to find northern lights in their early times, at the early night of the night, before they're fully viBrant, you would hold your camping in the sky back out there they are to a point where you couldn't even see them yourself, which actually, funny enough, happen to us. And why, when there was a comment in the sky you could not totally see IT put your Cameron the sky, you could. So northern lights, amazing.

The sniffing path was mazing. One of my favorite things to do when traveling is eat wild things. And so if you make IT out that direction, there is a shark museum where you can learn about and eat prevented shark.

So many people had told us, like, it's disgusting. You should never do IT. Honestly, I went back for more. I thought I was good.

You are a true iceland ic human being, I would say. IT also wasn't not bad. IT smells really punch and aggresive, but the actual flavor is quite smooth and creamy, almost like a creamy cheese.

Creamy, stinky cheese is kind of how long people describe IT.

IT wasn't as bad as I expected.

Your dad loves really punched cheese. So maybe it's something from your genetics you have a previous position or its stinky cheese that made permit the dark taste. I don't have any excuse for why I liked that, but yeah, love the west, the hotel.

We said I hotel, but there was awesome. One of the other things we did up there, there was really cool that I think we really try to do on this trip. And thanks to Brandon and Young guzzi, our guide, we were able, two was go meet people outside of just a tourist experience.

And so one of Brandon's friends had this art gallery, and we were able to go inside her art gallery that he had just and was an open to the public. And we really just got to spend an hour a half with someone who lives in iceland, learn about how people in iceland have multiple different careers, and they, they kind of live life in chapters. And that part of the trip is kind of a theme, but something I really appreciate and want to infuse to every trip we take.

How do you get off the beaten path and go meet someone that lives in the country and learn about the culture? Because unfortunately, while the staff at every place we stayed were awesome, most of the staff at restaurants and hotels are not islands. And so if you really want to understand the culture, you have to find ways to meet locals, which is not as easy in iceland at least. So after that, we went to rake vic. And i'm curious how you would describe rake vic.

rak. Vic is a very charming city. It's actually smaller than I expected having been there. I think if you did a half day walk about, you might be able to see most of IT.

at least the highlights, right? I'm sure anyone for making there for a decade is like, what do you mean? There's so what you can spend half a day in one museum, but I think the walking tour to hit the highlights of seeing the outside of the city, you could basically walk the whole thing in half a day.

for sure. Yeah, there's a bunch of little bars, restaurants, Bakeries that you can pop into to warm up, grab a quick bite or a drink, which is great. We ended up checking out this cool little punk rock museum. I think that was .

the museum of iceland.

Tic punk rock. yes. And IT IT turns out IT you to be an olds public restroom. So IT was very small, very interesting, worth checking out. IT takes maybe ten minutes, but I learned a .

lot about the music there. Yeah, I thought that was cool. For people like weird things.

The largest collection of penises in the world is that the isolated biological museum, interesting place, much more like what you would see at, like the natural history museum than what you would see like some sex museum in some other country. So I would say IT was mostly a bunch of animals. So we did that for fun.

And IT was interesting. I'll leave IT at that. I don't even know how to describe IT.

IT speaks a lot to the islands culture, which is there are very proud people and a bit quirky as well. They really lean into they are interest and these different chapters, the different careers that they have in the hobbies they take up, and they're very happy to share that.

yes. So every time we are walking on recovered, we see like, oh, here's a random museum about a random thing. Let's go and check that out. And in many cases, it's very easy to run into these people because a lot of these businesses are small and museums are small and shops are small.

And so yes, I think the downtown part of ratio c had a lot of basically souvenir shops, but there were some hidden gems that you could sneak out to if you're a fan of instow, the beer that we can get in the united states. There was a bar that had way more samples of that. One night we went to cocktail bar in which is actually a really cool cocktail barn, like, not speak easy, and that is hidden, but really kind of creative, high and cocktails.

They had an entire train car inside the restaurant, and I wish I remember red the name of the drinks we had. One of them said the ingredient was electricity. I don't know what that means, but I was absolutely delicious.

But we had a lot of people join us that night. I was like a free afternoon in req, vic. On the tour. Even though we'd often hanging out together non stop, we still were enjoying each other, others companies so much that we checked out a bar together.

Yeah, the bar was great. I really enjoyed IT. And then from there we ended up going to sumac for dinner, which was phenomenal.

Yeah, I might be one of the best restaurants. I've eat that in a long time. And the chef has another restaurant called ox, which is like a fix Price multi course.

I think they have exactly seventeen seats, tty high and expensive experience. And then also this other restaurant, which is like islands food and ingredients merged with mila stern flavors, highly recommend. We had such a good dinner there brand and invited a friend from island.

So we got another opportunity to just meet a local over that dinner. And if you're in rake vic, I would absolutely not miss that dinner also really great cocktails. One other thing in rake, vic, we did that I want to add, is we waited in line for this quite essential, well known hot dog in iceland. And you loved IT.

IT was delicious. And IT was different from the states, hot dogs in that they're made a blame. The flavor profile was a bit different. And the topics were incredible that you remember what was on them.

I was like crisp e onions and mustard and this other sauce, and i'd love sauces. So I was a huge fan. I actually tried to have one at the airport, and I tried to buy hot dogs.

And you are like, I don't think that there are gonna like last twelve hours in your backpack and still be good. They probably have the preserve tips in our hot dog. So maybe you are correct, but they were good enough. I wanted to bring them home well.

and actually interesting learning for those who go to island and want bring these hot dogs back. When we talk to the customs person upon reentering the U. S, they said he was acceptable. Yes, yeah, that was the other thing.

Someone told us we might not be able to bring these hot dogs back because you can't bring me in. And they said there would have been no problem. So going back in time, I would have bought some hot dogs.

I would have found a way to freeze them so that we could bring them home frozen and have a few in our freezer. You could probably get them somewhere in the U. S.

And maybe there are even on amazon, who knows? But yeah, I would check out a hot dog when you're in rake vic. I would just walk around.

There are so many awesome things to see and there other restaurants, we didn't spend a lot of time there because as much as that was interesting to eat and drink in recovery c, those are things we can kind of do back home in california. What we can do is get out into nature. And so we spent the rest of the trip in the south, and IT was amazing.

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You know that feeling when you use a new product that so amazing that blows your mind. That just happened after I got access to superhumans new ask AI feature. And if you've ever SAT there searching, typing different keywords, hoping you could find that one email, you will want to keep listening.

Now, i've been a superhuman user for long before. Theyve been a sponsor, the show and IT was already the best and fastest email experience out there. I am certain I safe dozens, if not hundreds of hours a year using superhuman.

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Again, you have to check out superhuman and get back at least a few hours every single week at all. The hacks, stock comb, slash, superhuman. What did you like the most? I think the highlight for me, both from like just a nerd about technology and experience, was that we had higher these two super chips.

And if anyone thinks they know what i'm saying, you probably don't unless you have been to iceland. But imagine a truck jacked up to the point that you know you're entering like chest level with massive tires. But there is a system to be able to inflate and deflect the tires in real time.

So you could basically be driving and drop the pressure and raise the pressure so you could get through all these interesting places. And protium, if you were driving a rental car, there are a lot of places you probably shouldn't go. And I would spend the time to make sure you don't get stocked places.

Because what we understood about the rules is that icelandic carreno companies will hold anyone, iceland tic, who tries to help the car out of a sticky situation, liable for any potential damage. So our tour guides were unable to stop because one time they had stop to try to help someone, and then they got stuck with some liability bill related to them, and so they could not help them. So if you're going to iceland, hire one of these super jeeps taking excursion, go on a tour and it's amazing.

And so we got to go off into this place called doesn't k, which is like through the thunder god kind of situation. And it's like another planet in a weird way of kind of is like you're in this island and the of nowhere. But we hiked through canyons.

Parts of IT were familiar because they're backdrops for scenes and game of thrones. We walked through water to get to a secret water fall. We climbed a mountain.

When I talk about a video that captures a lot of what we saw, and there will be clips of that hike and lots of clipsed from therm, we had a barbecue with more islands, hot dogs, just to bring that back up again. I don't know. The south seemed so amazing.

The canyons were incredibly rugged. Ged IT feels very remote, which is again another reason you do not want to take our rental car back there, because the terrain is very aggressive. Massive boarders do not try to drive them yourselves. There's hikes that you will not likely find anywhere else, so definitely worth the time, energy to go check out south mark.

One thing i'm surprised actually we haven't mentioned IT all is waterfalls. And maybe it's one of those things where when you're on a trip before you've been the island, you're like you let's go find that water. And I remember asking one of our guide was like, oh, how many waterfalls or are we going to see? And they were like, there's too many to count.

You're going to see hundreds of waterfalls all over the country. And so I think the scale of some of the waterfalls was unbelievable. And it's interesting because i've been to places like niaga pales where the scale is massive.

But IT almost feels like something that is like a distant museum where you're hiking out on a bridge, but you can't really engage with IT in island. You have these massive waterfalls and you can walked right under them in some cases. You can put your hand out and drink from them in some cases.

And I would probably recommend this for anyone going. I did not take this advice to bring the rain pants in the rain jacket. You'll get up real close.

A few of us did that without the rain pants in the rain jacket and had very wet cloth. But IT was amazing. I I can't count the number of waterfalls we saw. If you watch the video of our trip, i'll see how amazing they are. Huge shout out to josh on our trip who brought a drone so we can actually see beyond the top of a waterfall and see what was happening behind the scenes.

IT was just amazing. yeah. The footage above is so wild to view from the drone the government checked out on the links in the show notes.

One other thing related to the waterfalls. There's one mountain and the islands. Locals say they're trying to dig that mountain down to nothing because IT is ugly.

And when I asked our local guide, Young easy, why is IT agly? His response was, there are no waterfalls. It's ugly.

We have to get rid of IT. And so this explains just how many waterfalls are in this country. Waterfalls everywhere you look.

Yep, and I love the islands. Honesty and kind of bluntness that came from both our guide and everyone we interacted with. The culture is really interesting that we heard so many stories.

One of the things about iceland is that you're going to spend some time driving, and I think i'm mistake you could make on a trip, is to base yourself solely in req, vic, because then you're not only enough to drive everywhere. We had to drive everywhere, but you're going to have to drive everywhere, everyday. And so really getting out and staying in different parts of the country, I think, gives you a lot more access.

IT means you don't have to drive three and a half hours to start your day every day. But on those drives, there were so many amazing stories. I don't even know how I could recap them, but IT was anny how a recurrent theme seemed to be, that in almost every iceland's story, everyone dies.

And we were like, we thought this was really just like from the sagas, the vages and all these old stories. But even with children stories, death is not something that IT seems like an islandia culture. Maybe it's scary, but it's not not talked about, right? And so the story of gilla, who is like a Christmas witch, or maybe just is a Christmas or is just a witch at any time.

they use IT specifically around Christmas, but maybe other times that they want their children behave.

yeah. And the story is, if you don't behave gylle is gonna eat you. I just remember hearing our guy talk about how his daughter was like, I don't want to eat me.

I'm scared. And like, I was just crazy that there were multiple stories. There's also a cat, and I go, if you don't get something soft, like yarn or a sweater, the cat is going to eat.

And it's just like this very interesting Jackson position to the way we would probably tell stories. But I started thinking about that as a cause I feel like I can tell the story to my daughter. I joked with you, remember, I was like, we should buy this book.

We are trying to bring home a gift. What about one of these Christmas stories? And you are like, we're not bring that home. And then I like, well, I guess when I was a kid, there is handle and grew. You know that which bag do in the oven? Maybe our kids are getting soft because we're not threatened them with stories of getting eaten and baked alive, but in island.

they still are. This is a very conflicting experience for me because on the one hand, I agree. I think tell them up a little bit, give them stories, allow them to hear extremes.

On the other hand, I like to sleep at night, and if I tell them the story, they want sleep. Therefore, I won't sleep at night. And so I prefer to keep IT nice and easy.

There's no child eating in these households. And so I think those stories will probably remain in island. But IT is very interesting to experience all of the stories and how they weve some of these mythical creatures throughout all of the story telling that they do. Brandon talked about .

this back in epo de one fifteen. But there's actually, I think, someone in the government whose job is to talk to the elves in the hidden people in the country and to someone listening that thinks that sounds crazy, go back and listen that episode. But it's infused in so many aspects of culture and storytelling and hike seron that I wouldn't do IT justice to try to explain IT right now.

But I was really, really interesting few other things. So one thing we didn't get to do, but we stated this place called scala cot in the south and IT was a whole horse manner, and there was lots of horse backrib. And while we didn't do IT, a few of the people on the trip got to go on horse book rides before the trip started or after, and they said, I was amazing.

So that's something that we didn't get to do, but I would kind of encourage people interested to check out. And then we hide the glacier, like put on crap bonds, climbed glure, bent down and drank water that was running down the side of IT. I feel like icon is this place that you can have an other world experience.

And to do that, not only in a nature environment that you have never experienced before, everything from water to ice to northern lights, but to do IT in a culture is very different, and to do IT with a bunch of new people that interestingly shared similar values. But we're very different, right? I think the entire group of people coming on this trip with us IT wasn't like a bunch of people that worked in one industry or were one age.

I think there were over thirty years gap between the Youngest and oldest person on the trip, and everyone got along. The food was amazing. I will say one thing that every iced lander thought was so history was, everyone said the fit was so good.

And Brandon pointed IT at one time. He like, no, no, no, we just pick to the good food. Like iceland is not known as a major colony destination, but if you know the right places, you can have an incredible caine and have an amazing time. And I think we were lucky to be able to do that in a country that if you just go on your own and just pick at the wim, you might not have the most amazing colony experience, but you'll be really hard not to .

have amazing experience in. I M. One of the biggest takeaway for me was going on a guided trip with all the hacks in Brandon was a much Better experience than any individual going on their own could do, because IT is very difficult to find.

These hidden waterfall talked away behind these canyons really deep into island. If you are not a local, if you don't know where they are. And so then you end up at these very touristy destinations. And yes, they're still beautiful, but it's really hard to find these hidden gems going on your own.

And 3万change every year。 So I asked our guy, I was like, this was one of the cool waterfalls. How many years have you've been coming here? Is like IT wasn't accessible for the last three years, just.

The fact that there's all of this snow and ice and water, things are changing every year. I also think you could do IT on your own a little bit by hiring people, but I would just be so expensive because we had to hire two super jeep, and we had eighteen total people. You could go with two people and you could hire a super jeep, but you're going to be paying for that extra cost because it's just youtube.

And so I think you get a lot of scale when you go with a group. And the feedback from people that weren't group people was just unbelievable. So a couple other travel related logistics that I thought interesting for iceland and some that might be applicable outside.

One, taxes are so expensive. So if you aren't thinking you're just going to catch a lift to a uber, you're not they don't exist. Someone's flight did get cancelled and they showed up the next day.

And the taxi to go two or three hours was almost six or seven hundred dollars. So when you're coming from the airport, take the bus IT literally is how everyone comes tune from the airport unless you rent a car, which are both cheaper than taking a taxi anywhere. As for getting there, there's not that many ways you can have your trip to iceland.

One of the chAllenges is that almost every flight is on iceland there, which has a zone rewards program that i'm guessing almost no one listening to has pointed miles that will get them in. The only exception of that is that they are a partner of alasia airlines. And so you can book ice on their flights with alaska.

Miles availability depends, but I couldn't find a single date that was available anywhere near when we wanted to go, even up till the day or two before. In business class on the economy, which we booked using alaska points was about twenty eight thousand five hundred our points each way. And the planes themselves on iceland air, I thought we're fine.

They're new. They're modern, comfortable business class was the same as you've seen in a domestic business class. So you might think, do I really want to spurt for this? And yes, you will get a bigger seat and more room, but you absolutely not get a life flat bed like you would explode ging for business class on almost every other overseas flight, with the exception of united airlines, does have.

And I think that might be the only. But things change all the time. Life that business class from the us. To iceland. And that actually became available about two, three days before our trip.

So because you get free cancellation on alaska, except for the twelve dogs and fifty cent partner booking fee, we cancell on alaska a flight. We book the united flight, and we ended up in business class. IT was lifeline business. But I think united picked the oldest plane that they still have an Operation in the entire fleet for us to fly.

Icon, yes, IT felt like there were small aspects of the plane that we're starting to fall apart.

not necessarily .

from a safety standpoint, no. But for example, the pull out table or the light switch overhead, little things that just felt like IT needed a bit more maintenance.

S, also, the flight is so short, I think he was about seven hours. By the time you take off, you could lean your seat back. We skipped trying to eat on that flight, but if you wanted to eat, IT would have been maybe five hours before you have to sit back up and land. So I think if you need a nice nights sleep, you're probably not gonna get IT no matter what you do, which is why I think I was nice to arrive a day before, which is what we did and a lot of other people did.

Alternatively, if you want to spurge with points and miles and you want to have a really great trip there, i'm not opposed to booking a longer overnight flight in europe and backtracking IT certainly won't save you time, but you will have a full night in the air that you'd actually be able to get sleep. There are so many options with life like so if we are looking at verge and do something a little fancy, that's one direction. The alternative is there's actually a day flight that one of the couples on our trip had to take because their flight was cancelled from boston, which if you're on the east coast, I would recommend because you can take off and land in the same day and then sleep in iceland, and then you don't have to worry about trying to get four hours of sleep on a flight.

So that be my advice, is if you're on the east coast taking that day flight and spend the night in recovery. C, when you land. As for island, there are a couple things that we learned.

One, you do get a free stop over. So if you're looking to fly to europe, you could book your flight to paris or london, or really anywhere on icon air. And they just stop an icon for free.

So that's great. Another thing is that there is this rule for flights to europe that if your flight is cancelled or delayed, you are entitled to meaningful compensation. And so the couple that had their flight cancelled got a we schedule, so they got booked on the boston flight.

But they also got six hundred year ros per person as compensation for their flight delay, which covered the flight to boston to connect to get to iceland and then gave them a little bit of extra to make up for the fact that they missed a very little amount t of their trip. The only other things I wrote down, where we never took cash out once, never went to an A T M, never needed local currency, could tap to pay pretty much everywhere for everything. Even sometimes there was like, if you want to make a donation, tap to pay.

We went to this one church, and I was like, if you want to make a donation, tap to pay on your own. IT was self serve tapped to pay? amazing.

Always, when you're traveling internationally, assuming you have a credit card that has no foreign transaction fees, which is most of the premium travel card, always pay in local currency. So when you're tapping to pay, choose I sign a coroner, choose euro, choose whatever the local currency is. I think we've talked about that a few times, but I know that's my highlights of my son.

Anything else to add? Iceland generally is very expensive. Maybe part of IT is the exchange right place on when we went. But everything from a coffee to a hotel room and coming from california, I still felt a bit sticker shocks. So that was one interesting learning that I was not really prepared for.

Yeah those cocktails, I think we're like twenty eight or thirty eos s it's achieve country. This episode is brought you by theory, which is a new perspective on performance of peril that I wear almost every single day. IT is so vertical that IT can be used for just about any activity, whether it's running, training, swimming, yoga or even lounge running irons or going out to dinner.

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One other thing that I learned on this trip was you and I have never really been group trip people, and I think a vast majority of the people who attended this trip with us also are like minded and that they would never take a guided tour. And I think the experience I had, like the rest of the travellers, was the first day was a bit uncomfortable because we're all used to having plans and control of the trip.

And so you could tell everyone is a little bit uneasy. But as the trip settled in and people really started enjoying the experience, you could tell by the end, people were like, this was the most amazing experience, because I never had to think about what is our plan today, how do we get there, all of the stuff that we typically do during our trouble. And so that was a really interesting learning for me as a non group trip person, where I really enjoy that aspect of bit.

Yeah, I think me, you and probably a lot of people listening, our little taipei control freak when IT comes to planning a trip because we know how to planning a trip and IT turns out and i'll just share a piece feedback from someone who went on the trip, that when you run quisling control to someone that can do this at a level beyond what you can, which we did with Brandon and.

Young Kathy and others that IT works, and they said, as someone who never travels on guide of tours, I took a chance on this trip. I was blown away. I wan enthusiastically sign up for any trip plan by all the hacks.

I ve got a very intimate behind the scenes view of an incredible place, and I look forward to where they go next. So we're not ready to talk about where we're going beyond island, but we are already to talk about going to icon again. So next year, we're going back to yelland.

And so for everyone that was on the weight list, for everyone that didn't get a chance to go, we are going to do IT again. And we're going to take another small group, probably no more than fifteen to sixteen, seventeen people, and we're gona do IT again. And it's going to be amazing because we just did IT and IT was amazing actually to put a page up with a trailer that we put together from all the footage from the trip.

So details on the trip, dates for the trip Prices, that trailer, everything else is going to be up at all. The hacks, doc com, flash iceland. I'd encourage everyone, whether you're hundred percent committed or thinking about IT, at least fill out the form there.

Because last year, when we actually started taking deposits, we filled the trip up in a matter of days, and there are few people who mailed me and said, hey, I really wanted to go. I miss IT. Is there a chance if I could still come? And unfortunately, we just didn't have room to add more people to the trip.

So I think if you want to go to iceland and you want to have the kind of experience we just described, i'm excited to bring people along. As of right now, we're going to plan in one week. And if there's enough people, we might do a second trip the second week.

So I don't over all the access of there's so much information filling out the form, it's going to be amazing. okay. So I feel like we've traveled a lot in the last than a half, but I want to talk about hawaii because IT was so relaxing and so nice even though we'd been to the big island handful of times. I think every time we go, it's amazing. Do you still feel that way?

I do hawaii. It's just easy. But you still get a bit of that cultural flavor that doesn't exist if you go to a ation on one of the coastal downtown th. So it's great.

So the way I want to talk about why is, first off, we've been to the big land and a lot of times, i'll talk about a few of the things we've done while we're there. And honestly, now that we have children, most of our trip to hawaii, not driving around the island, doing lots of activities, i'm going to focus on how to get there.

The two properties we stayed at, a few of the things we did outside of the restaurants, that kind of stuff and any other tips I have. But this is absolutely not meant to replace a comprehensive guide to the big island or anywhere else, because, Frankly, the reason we keep going back to the big island is a conference that i've been going to for years. And IT just sets us up for a little bit of relaxation before and after, but not excursions all around the island.

So first I talk about lights because I am constantly surprised at how cheap IT is to get to haig, at least from the west coast. And for anyone who's looking to fly to why, from somewhere else and doesn't see cheap flights, I would encourage you to look fro m 3 Frances go oakland， L A. And see if you can find a cheap flight there that you might have to buy a separate flight to connect to because our flights ended up being less than three hundred dollars round trip and they kept dropping over the course of time.

So once I booked our flights, they ve got automatically imported into trip IT. And I just got this email is, oh, your flights down twenty dollars great or rebook IT and get twenty dollars a credit person, oh, your flights dropped again. I think that happened two or three times on this trip to the point that our flights probably were close to two hundred twenty box each way.

And so at that Price, IT wasn't even worth trying to use miles to book the flight because I was just such a good deal. Now one of our legs was on southwest, and so we absolutely use southwest credit that we've been buying at costco over the years or sams club because you can get IT for somewhere, I think around fourteen, fifteen percent off. So the Price I did isn't even what we paid because we paid for IT with southwest gift cards that we bought on sale.

So that is my tip for getting to why southwest makes IT really easy from the the area. All the flights are out of oakland. But one nice thing is that if you have A M X platon card, there's an escape lounge there, which doesn't have the same guest rules as the other central lunches that you have access to from your platon card.

And so you can bring in multiple people and the foods pretty good. It's not a huge launch, but it's always nice to get a free meal either before or in our case. We landed right around dinner time, and we knew that soon as we got home, the kids were going to to sleep.

So one of us went to the lounge with the kids, had dinner. I ran over to get our bags. So we are already to go. And we were able to just knock out dinner time at the airport quickly for free before we had at home. Anything else to add about flights, either tor from hawaii or any of the air travel?

If we are talking about flights with kids, which was our experience, I think a few things that I have worked really well for us are, one, pack a lot of snacks. And by a lot, I mean, a lot of snacks, particularly if you find some new snacks that they haven't been exposed to. I think that's always new and exciting for them and will keep them beef for a bit.

And then the other thing is buying cheap little toys or coLoring books or something that, again, they haven't really seen much of before because IT feels very new and fresh. If you really wanted, buy yourself a bit of time on longer flights or wrap all of these things individually, because then IT takes them time to open them as well. And so little about you a lot of time keeping your kids entertained on a flight.

which is what we did. Yes, we don't do a lot of screen time, but on flights, we kind of have no rules and restrictions. And over the past few years, i've been surprised that sometimes, even though your kids might love watching shows on a screen, they get bored of IT and you need something to do because there's just nothing else to do on a plane.

And we have not had kids that sleep well on planes. We've had kids that sleep well in beds. Maybe that's a trade off. So we've needed to keep them really busy on the note of sleep on planes.

One of the interesting things that we've bought over the years, or actually was given to us by my parents, was this suitcase thing called the stock y japp ack. And the way that works is it's like a rolling suitcase for kids and IT kind of pop up to create a foot rest. And I think we originally got IT because we thought of, wow, we could pop this up, extend the seat all the way out and be like a great little bed for kids that's never worked for us.

We've never successfully had a child sleep on IT. I propose bringing IT and trying IT again. This year. I didn't work. However, where IT did work is that it's also like a little rolling seat for kids in the airport.

And so our Youngest doesn't always like to walk for as long as you might take to walk from security all the way to your gate. And so having something you can put a child on and roll them that doubles as a suitcase that holds a bunch of stuff, is where we put all these activities and ipads and headphones in is really useful. And even if we don't need IT for the foot rest feature, I think until both kids are old enough that you don't have to fight the I don't anna, walk any more kind of situation.

I actually now think bring IT, but not because it'll help sleep, but because I will help move kids around the airport. One other trick, and this is a southwest specific thing that we failed to do this time, which was funny, because as we failed to do IT, I realized I had the exact same thought the year before, which is trips to why you're filled with kids. There are so many families and kids on a flight, and southwest does family boarding right after the aid group.

And I forgot that people line up for that family boarding a lot earlier than I thought. And so by the time we got over, they were calling a group and we said all, let's line up for family boarding. The family boarding line was longer than the a group boarding line.

There were probably fifty, sixty people just in line. And so if you're go on a flight with children on southwest, which I assume is the same goal for everyone, is to be able to sit next to your children and have your entire family there. IT might be worth getting in the gate a little early in lining up for family boarding, especially at least at the corner airport.

There's a separate section, whether one lines up our family boarding. So that's one thing we absolutely failed to do and for no good reason. There was not a good place to eat at the airport. There was not a lot to do at the airport. We were just kind of killing time when we could have been getting in line.

That said, I don't think anyone in the family boarding group didn't get a seat on the plane, but we might have got one of the last seats on the plane that we could have had together and probably added ten minutes to getting off the plane. And when you're landing right around bedtime, IT feels like every minute counts. So as for who I i'll talk about rental cars before I talk about the two properties we stayed at, which were the montoni, and then we stayed right next to the fairmont, which is the hotel.

We stayed at a lot. But when IT comes to transportation around the island, I think i've come to the conference once without you and I was like, i'm just going to take uber or lifts. It's not that easy and quick to get them everywhere.

So we weren't in a car this year. And for some reason, we'd always rented cars from hurts. Seemed like IT was always the best deal from hurts.

A VS was always the worst deal. And we didn't search that many other places. And i've been hearing in the points of mile's world about how everyone loves national. And I think part of the reason everyone loves national is that they have the best rewards program where the fest number of rentals until you get a free rental. But I thought the Price wasn't that much more like twenty box more.

And one of the nice things is, if you have executives lead status on national and you book a full size car, you can pick any car on a lot. And so when we got there, I picked to any van, which, because we are traveling with our kids and my parents, we needed a little bit extra space. And the cost to rent that minivan would have been way more.

And every time we went to her, we never get enough grade. Like to a mini banner to an S. U. V. So i'm sold one hack.

Here is you can always book a non prepaid rate at national, and you could also book a back up at hurts if you want. And if you show a national, they're I K the only car we have as this you can say, alright, i'm not interested. You can go gate your her trento.

I have heard people doing that in the past. We just book national and we roll the dice. And he was great. I can't validate this on their website, but the person I picked IT up from told me we could add up to seven or nine people for free as extra drivers looks like you can definite add your partner, but I didn't see that writing on the website, but they seem to have no issue. We added my mom that was no extra cost, so I don't know. I'm a convert to national IT also happens to be one of the closest rental car counters to the airport which if you don't know, you can walk. They have shuttle buses, but it's a pretty close .

walk as well yeah and the one thing that made renting a car really easy and transporting just two in from both airports is the right table of us, a five point german system that replace a coursea. So they've been safety tested. They've gone through the same kind of safety standards.

And they're amazing because they collapse down into something very, very small. So as opposed to Carrying one or two or how many car seats you need, you now happy as little as they can, just pop on the, you put them in, secure them in VS c ballots and off you go. There are game changer yeah.

our rent car seats, which national does not provide for free. And technically, I think it's anny the right safer travel. S is a car seat. Legally, car seats in amErica expire.

And so what has the thing which is really just made up of different straps and some belco there, like this thing explores in seven years and like, what about this expire in seven years, I don't know, but the main thing that does is just reroute the seat belt so that they're safe for children. And they're so small that I just put him in my backpack along with half of the stuff I was bringing on the trip. So love those.

great. I'm not going to go any deeper on rental cars and car transit, but there is an episode I did, episode sixty six, on basically everything you would want to know to optimize rental cars and saving money. So if you're rented a car, head back there, let's talk about the properties we stayed at and some many activities. First place we stay was a monolog. I'm curious what you thought.

The modern money was really beautiful and comfortable and clean, which is very important for me. I loved IT. I would one hundred percent .

today there again. yeah. So walking into that hotel is amazing because there's this massive atrium that I don't even know to describe. But there was a really, really amazing experience at that hotel walking in.

I thought IT was so family friendly, giving the kids their legs, giving them a juice, like just the entire experience through and through was this is definitely a family friendly hotel. However, IT wasn't over the top family friendly. There weren't water slides everywhere.

They weren't kids activities everywhere. So they did have a kids club. Our kids aren't old enough for IT, so we didn't get to do that.

There was also an adult pool. So if you want to slip away from children because you're not traveling with them, that's an option. Tons of activities.

So I think anyone has been a wine knows this. Almost every hotel with a beach has an activity hut, and you going to stand up panel boarding, which I recommend. We did that.

We did a sunrise cano, which I think you were a little skeptical love. But for whatever reason, the week we went, all activities were free. And so I was like, well, let's get in all the activities.

Do you want to wake up early into a sunrise? Can you battle? What do you think?

IT was amazing. I was nice to hear the stories from generations of hawaii people in the way that their villages and communities used to wake up together and collectively prepare for the day. And not really what I was about them coming out in these boats and welcoming the sun and the wind and the water and all of the things that are important for them. So IT was a really nice grounding way to start the day. yeah.

And one of the crazy things was we didn't actually know that all of these we we're going to be free when we showed up and they didn't put them on their website. And so it's certainly something that I would encourage everyone booking a trip to reach out to the hotel because there might be these crazy promotions happening that they don't publicize that could really sway your experience.

And so I remember when we were at this beach chat talking about what to do, said, if you want to do this snake is a perfect time to do IT. Because a snarky was like one hundred thousand dollars per person for a boat snarky tour, but this day was free. And they're could you had a family of four, you saved almost five hundred dollars.

And so if that's a kind of activity you wanted do, and you're comparing two hotels and they're about the same Price, it's always worth calling and asking other any promotions for any of the activities at the hotel or anything like that because whether the kids club is free, whether the activities are free, whether there is like super discounted happy hour drinks, but whatever IT is you want to do on your trip, there might be some of those things that you just don't know about because for whatever reason, hotel don't always publicize them on their website so that something i'd look up also like activity. Sometimes they have yoga, and at some wells you have paid for IT, and someone tells us free fitness classes. All those sorts of things are worth looking into before you go.

A couple of interesting notes that I wrote down on this hotel because I got to take a little bit of tour myself, and one of the staff showed me a few cool things. The gym, we didn't use IT once, but it's amazing, like I actually felt like a real thorough gym with everything from box jumping to everything you would want. We had kids.

We have enough time to go the gym, but IT looked great things about the hotel. Food was incredible. I think that we've never had a room service dinner in any hotel. And my parents agreed, who've said that far more hotels. And I have as good as the room service we had in this hotel with the only exception. And I gave them this feedback that if you're serving ice cream for desert, maybe bring IT like twenty minutes later, because hawaii hot and the ice creams did not last like I imagine they intended, but the actual food delivered was as good as the food we hand the restaurant.

Yeah, I agree. I think that was actually a good hack for us as well where when we arrived, by the time that we got into our room and settled in IT was time for dinner and hawaii three hours behind us. And so we're all feeling pretty tired by the end of the day. And ordering room service was such a great hug to wind down in a really easy, low energy way to the transition bedtime with no difficulty. And yes, the room service there specifically was probably just as good as eating IT at the restaurant.

One thing that I think some places do is they have a kids menu, but they just charge pretty unreasonable amounts. This kids menu was pretty reasonable and the portions were so big that there is one night where I was like, I think I can just want to order of the kids menu and that seemed unreason about the restaurant. But I I could if we do room service, they don't know if this foods for me of the kids and the portions were great.

So there is a little hack for you that we didn't have doing room service twice. But if we did, I absolutely would have votel off the kids menu and saved a few bx. This hotel as well as the fireman, I think, are both hotels that come with perks if you book them to the right channel.

So where that's using final resorts from M, X, if you have a plata card, you can get create or the site we set up hotels that all the hacks are come and the password on that site is now perks where a lot of these luxury hotels have a deal where if you booked them through the right channel, you usually get a property credit of one hundred or two hundred dollars and upgrade on availability. Late check out, early check in, and usually free breakfast. The breakfast here was awesome.

I am a sucker for a resort breakfast where I can just try a hundred different things on my plate. All you can eat try to do IT a little late. So it's your breakfast in your lunch. I really don't think there's a Better meal to be had than a high and delicious breakfast buff at a resort.

The breakfast buffet was amazing, definitely great going on the later side. Save that money. And one of the other restaurant that I actually really enjoyed was canoe house.

So it's also the monolog. It's duly on the Price your side, but the food is phenomenal. yes.

Like they're fine dining restaurant right on the water, the huge grassy areas of you do take your kids punning a place for them to run around. The one time we ate there, we did not have children. But man, the food was so good. I remember this like japanese milk bread show upon that .

was awesome. IT is just consistently very good. Every dish week ordered was amazing.

And actually their portions are quite large, so just beware, you'll want to order everything on the menu. We unfortunately did the night we went, and we had so many. leftover.

Fortunately, all the rooms had little, many fridges, which is nice to older stores. Make sure food if the kids need to eat a little snacked later. Two other little things. One, the staff told us that they had a long room. And all I could think about was how many hotels that we've stayed at have a place that you could do a quick load of laundry that i've just never heard about. Maybe this is rare and unique to the hotel.

Maybe it's Normal, I didn't know, but they do have a place where if you're traveling for an extended period of time, or you just have kids that try on seven outfits and get them all dirty throughout the day, you can do a quick load of laundry. They also, I love this trend, have free sunscreen and there is nothing that makes me happier than going to a hotel that has free sund screen. I don't know why it's probably like the frugal side of me.

It's like i'm just going to go use their free sunscreen. There is one time where I think my parents, like I brought some sunscreen. They are using the room, use sunscreen you paid for. We go get free sunscreen down the pool. I feel like that very, very much of me comment and you're giving me, giving me a eyes.

It's funny that you say this because the properties they offer this nice free screen or actually believe more expensive, i'm paying for way you're paying for IT.

Yes, it's just not directly exactly.

but i'm glad you feel so happy. Walk away without free sunscreen from the .

beach yeah I mention we talk about the fairmont briefly because it's next door. We staying there a few times. We were there for the conference, but we didn't stay on site. And so the only few things all add, they have a bigger pool.

But I think if you are coming with kids that like expLoring a massive, massive pool, doesn't have slides and lazy rivers and all those things like you might have at one of the major big resort. But IT has a lot more space to play around. Other than that, it's pretty similar.

They also have a restaurant that's like right right on the water that super casual. So honestly, sometimes i'm like, it's nice to just put your feet in the sand, have a casual lunch, look out of the ocean. That was one thing that the model I was missing.

They did have like a surf shack, but they didn't have a little restaurant there. At this point. We're talking about little things on both sides.

Both hotels are fantastic. They'll both hold a lot of fond memories. We've had multiple friends get married at the fairmont the moon is kind of a new edition, but IT was really amazing. So I don't know both of those are great anywhere on the island's probably also awesome. But let's talk a little bit about some of the other things we've done outside of the hotel.

no matter where you're staying. The nice thing about the montoni and the fairmont is that they're both in these areas where there's these protect cove parts of the ocean that make IT really accessible for storing and up patoo ding and some of those activities. And so you can easily just swim out or take a bottle border whatever and see fish.

We saw several sea turtles. IT was just really, really low lift, super easy and dispell really magical being able to do that. The one other thing we did was contact our concerns and ask them about the night struggling session with mentor's, and they gave us a few highly recommended options, and we ended up booking one for a pair.

And he said he was, hands down, the best experience she's ever had. And SHE actually was a little nerves going into IT. But by the end he was like, I was the last one of the water, because there were so many things to see, and the mentors got so close. But IT just felt like something I didn't want to ever let go of. yeah.

Made a couple of people at the conference I was going to and they were like, we have one extra night. We're trying to fear what to do. And I was like, all you should go snorkle with matter rays at night and they did.

And they were like, you should come with us and we were like, no, no, it's our last night. We had to leave early in the morning. I kind of regret not doing that.

They said he was one of the most amazing things they've also done. So if we're back on the big island, which we likely will, I think we need to find a way to do IT. Agree, couple other spots that we've been to over the years.

So love, love a beach club is this great casual restaurant right on the sand. Food is good. I don't remember the food as much as I remember the drinks, the sand, the sun, that the fact that they always seem to have live music and wool, a dancers, the kids can run around.

I think if you want to break from your hotel or if you want a less expensive meal than your hotel, love of a beach clubs, one of my favorite spots. I feel like every time around the big island we end up there. It's such a solid place yeah a few other things we've done the past.

We've gone to the poky jack, if you wants, in poky IT was delicious. One of the place. Do you remember a couple years ago going to on the rocks?

Yeah, great .

little cocktails on the beach. We had dinner, drinks, drinks, drinks. And I was a tone of fun. So I would go back there and i'll just validate IT with I told one of our wages at a restaurant that we had been in the past and he was like, I love that spot. So it's not just a hazy memory of good times that got validated.

And the one activity we've done the past that we didn't do on this trip was going out on a caTamaran, and I kind of wish we did at this time. I always love being out on the water on a boat, but we've done at once at one of the wedding. We went on once just on our own. And so I would say if you're on the big island or really any island and why, that's something I would add. I think that's all we have on why anything else.

No, but we're testing out this newer format. So we'd love any thoughts or feedback on what you like, what you don't like.

So you will know podcast at all. The hacks that com you can send anything in would love to know what you think of this also, amy, I going to record an A M A episode where we're taking questions both for me, for amy, for both of us. You can have any go to hacks that come flash A M A.

We would love to hear them answer them. And you'll expect that episode a couple weeks. I hope you enjoy this format feedback questions, anything podcast at all?

The hacks dog com. That's this week. I see next week.